MacKenzie M Davidson

I met one of my neighbor’s in the stairwell this afternoon. She is a very sweet old lady who I have coffee with about once a week. Yesterday I saw her and told her I was going to take a walk, which she and I both agreed was a good idea because it was sunny and not quite as cold as it had been. Well, today when I saw her she told me I didn’t take any sun, I was still so pale. It has officially begun, people asking me if I have “taken any sun” because I am so white. Last summer I spent a majority of my time explaining to people how I am genetically disposed to paleness. This is not going to change. I’ve spent one lone summer in 27 NOT getting a tan. I burn and then burn some more. The only time in my life I have ever tanned is when I was a lifeguard in high school and I worked my behind off to get a tan. I started the summer using SPF 50+ and eventually worked my way down to SPF 25 or 30. One very stupid time I took the advice of other lifeguards who were several shades darker than I was to use Afrosheen. For those of you who don’t know, Afrosheen is a can of pure oil that black people use on their hair and white girls use on their bodies to get a tan. Sheer stupidity on my part. Needless to say the next few days were spent rubbing aloe on myself every 5 minutes. But by the end of the summer I was the color of most people’s base color, which was a really good tan for me. I have senior pictures to prove I was a different skin tone for those who don’t believe me.
My paleness tends to stand out in the summer because everyone around me here is anywhere from 10 to 25 shades darker than I am. Makes for funny pictures. But this is something I had to adjust to and not just since I arrived in Italy.
But, you know, I’m ok with my paleness. I mean, sure there are days when I would love to be tan enough to look good in white, but that’s probably not ever going to happen. I think I got to be ok with not only my paleness but who I am when I figured out who I am in light of Christ. God knew I was going to be pale, a clutz, have a dorky laugh, love to play the piano, have blue eyes, live in Italy, marry Paul, love board games, really like things to be clean, and really not like snakes. So, bring on the comments about my paleness. I’ll combat them the same way I always do…this is the way God made me and there is no changing it.